I cleaned out our kitchen junk drawer the other week. So much stuff: random paperclips, questionable batteries, scraps of paper, faded recipes, assorted twisty ties, and old phone chargers/wires.
Do you have a junk drawer? I asked this in a group, and more than half raised their hands acknowledging a place of odds and ends in their homes. We smiled, thinking many of those who didn’t raise their hands wanted to hide the existence of the often-messy catch-all habit.
- A junk drawer becomes the spot to store items “we just might need someday.”
- Or is the coffin for things we long ago forgotten.
- Maybe even an area we want to hide something – out of sight, out of mind, right?
And I don’t want to be embarrassed to admit I got rid of something that turned out to be useful. Maybe I will just close the drawer and deal with this later…
Well, the drawer wouldn’t close completely so I knew it was time. I got to work.
I purged most of the drawer, throwing out or recycling the majority of the stuff. Then wet washed the emptied space before returning a few things I just couldn’t let go. You know what I mean. I am not hoarding but believe in that future hypothetical situation where that odd screw or old thingmajig will come in handy.
As I cleaned, I wondered do we have spiritual junk drawers? My heart cluttered with hurts, indifferences, jealousy, memories, and partial truths.
- Things I cling to because I might need them someday
- Ideas that I have long ago forgotten.
- Places to hide from God or even thoughts/behaviors I don’t want to Divine to see (well, duh, they see everything!)
Cleaning out my physical junk drawer became a moment of prayer. A prayer for surrendering all things to God, even those tightly held in the clutched fist of my heart. I pride myself in being independent. This characteristic is so deep in my identity I feel vulnerable in giving it to God. As if I trust myself more than the Holy.
A prayer for insight to what I need to remember, honor, and release. Maybe an old narrative I keep telling myself that is ready for letting go and moving forward. What old grudge, expectation or wound is well past it time and needs to go.
A prayer for forgiveness thinking I can hide part of myself in shame when God want all of me.
This whole process remined me of this verse: “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4 31-32
Once the junk drawer cleaning was complete, most of the drawer sparkled and switched to a welcoming space. I would like my heart to be that way too: sparkling with God’s light and open, ready for God’s love and grace to enter.
What about you? Cleaned your spiritual junk drawer lately?
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